A Gamer's Curse
by PokemonMasterPyro
Summary: As the new hottest VRMMORPG has just been released Cloud (Pyro) and his crew, Tyler (Faderz) and Joel (Spark), join the rest of the 10K lucky players to enjoy this new game but little did they know that if you die in game, you die for real. So now they have to fight for their own survival in hopes of clearing the game to escape the madness Akihiko Kayaba has created.
1. Chapter 1 - Press Start to Begin

Chapter 1 - Press Start to Begin

Sword Art Online, the new VRMMORPG that just recently released. I saved up all my past 4 months allowance savings to buy the NerveGear for it. I originally played the game when it was in the Closed Beta to a certain 1,000 testers. Gratefully, I was one of the beta testers and made it to the 6th floor on my own, though my NerveGear was a prototype, meaning it wasn't mine to keep. From what I heard, the best of us didn't even get very high. 10th Floor was the highest they got. 10 out of the 100 floors. The big thing of us beta testers is we got first dibs on pre-ordering the game. I took this chance and gratefully accepted the chance. All my colleagues and classmates were talking about it, the NerveGear, how it connects to your brain, intercepting and manipulating the signals given off by your brain and transmitting signals to stimulate your natural senses such as sight, hearing, and so on. Along with its helmet like shape to cover most of the user's face and millions of signal units to generate electromagnetic waves to stimulate the brain. It was amazing how the creator, Akihiko Kayaba, created and thought up such an invention. Revolutionary to the gaming technology and very popular to the community us gamers created. Though this isn't my first MMO. I used to play a MMORPG on PC called NeverWinter. It was a Dungeons & Dragons game made by DnD players for DnD players. Along with that, I've always been a PC/Xbox person myself, playing games such as Call of Duty, Halo, Need for Speed, Final Fantasy, and Resident Evil. Such games not only changed my life and inspired me as a gamer, but also helped me make good friends outside of school and my neighborhood. I managed to help out a few of my friends from my "clan" to get their hands on a copy. We all agreed that when we logged into SAO for the first time to meet in the fields just outside of the Town of Beginnings where little warthog like monsters spawn. I'm expecting 1 or 2 of them mainly because one said he might not make it in time due to his NerveGear shipping was delayed. But either way, I can't wait for the servers to be launched. The game is already all over the news in Japan of how 10,000 copies was printed and sold out within seconds. Good thing I pre-ordered mine. Just a few more minutes before they put the servers up. Kayaba announced the servers will be first launched at 1 PM in JST time.

I plug in the NerveGear and put in SAO into its respected place, placing the NerveGear on my head. I take one last deep breath and lie down on my bed. This is it, my first real Virtual Reality experience. I've seen people on YouTube use the old Oculus Rift and the newer version, the HTC Vive, but I never tried it myself. This is my chance to find out what its really like. I watch the clock tick down to 1 PM in the left hand corner of the visor and slowly close my eyes.

"LINK START!"

The screen goes white and multi-colored laser looking lines flash and fly past my field of vision as I find my login info be typed in for me logging into my SAO account I made earlier. I set my name to Pyro, after my Xbox username and my real life clan name. The NerveGear begins to auto-calibrate my senses before my sight goes complete white and slowly fades into what appeared to be a marketplace plaza. I look around and move my body around, checking myself out. It's too real and feels real. As if I'm back at the real world only in a different place. It's unexplainable and impossible to believe that my body is back at home. It's similar to the feeling when your dreaming only you have full control over it. I walk up to a building and use its window as a mirror. Black hair, going to the top of my shoulder blades and just over my left eye, leather clothes and a small piece of armor just covering my torso. I have to admit, I thought I looked badass.

"Wow, Kayaba sure went all out. I gotta give the man props for real." I chuckle and let out a sigh with satisfaction. "Well, best if I head to that meadow in case the crew shows up." I swiped my hand in a downward motion opening up my menu screen and go through what I can select. Friends/Guild, Inventory/Equipment, my character and armor/weapon slots, skills, stats, Communications, Maps/Quest, Settings/Main Menu. Your basic video game interface. I nod to myself and look around as I wander out of the market plaza looking around for the meadow. Can't be too far, just as I spot it. Smiling with being impressed and satisfied with how the game is going so far, I dash over to it. "For a first-floor this place is huge!" I laugh with excitement, sitting on the edge of what appeared to be a cliff as I heard a familiar voice behind me.

"YO! CLOUD, BUDDY IS THAT YOU?!"

That's my real name, Cloud Ryuzimaki. Nothing special but I personally like it. My sister says otherwise. She can't stand the Ryuzimaki name and cannot wait to get rid of it when she gets married. That's why she sticks with the name she and her friends given her, Numasaki. I honestly don't see the difference but whatever. Its her preference not mine. I turn around to find a man looking to be about 16 years old with spiky black hair, simple leather torso armor, and pants similar to common denim jeans, and his build is a bit on the chubby side. I stand up and wave my hand up in the air to him.

"HEY, GET OVER HERE MAN AND CHECK OUT THIS VIEW!"

Sure enough, he came dashing to me with laughter in his voice.

"What's up man, how you been?" He gave me a high five, chuckling.

"Fine, fine, how bout yourself Tyler?"

"Same shit, different day." He looks off the cliff and whistles. "That is a long ass drop down. Bet you make one wrong move on the edge of this place, your done for within seconds."

"You don't say?!" I say sarcastically. For a hardcore player like him, he sure does have one hell of a sense of humor. Even if half his jokes are ridiculously stupid.

"Anything from Chris or Joel?" he asks me with a concerned look in his eyes.

"Chris shot me a Facebook message saying he may not make it, his NerveGear shipping got delayed" Too bad he's missing out on this.

He sighs and rubs the back of his neck, "Jeez, well that blows. What about Joel?"

"You should know Joel by now. He's always the last one to meet us. Just give the poor man a chance" We both have our little giggle moment and enjoy the view so more. "He'll be here don't you worry"

Just as I say that, I hear his voice calling out to us. We both turn to his direction and find him being chased by one of the warthog monsters.

"HEY GUYS I'M HERE BUT WILL ONE OF YOU TAKE CARE OF THIS ANNOYING PIECE OF CRAP PLEASE?!" he called out. As we look behind us we find a fairly decent built guy with bight yellow hair in a long ponytail with the same basic torso armor and leather pants. We both shake our heads sighing as I drew my hand blade, dashing in his direction. I slowly took up speed readying my blade as I slide past him and slice the monster clear thru its head and body as my slide passes it. The warthog turned a light blue shattering into shards and a pop-up menu rewards me for my kill. Not a lot to give me but its a start.

"Finally you decide to show up. Where you been you should've been here a half hour ago bro." He chuckles nervously and scratches his head.

"Sorry 'bout that. Mom had me clean my room before I hop on. I rushed and hurried so I could get in here on time" Well he's right on that. His mom can be a pain sometimes…more like all the time. Tyler facepalms as I sigh.

"You know, you seriously need to get outta that house of yours Joel you know that! Your at the age so why don't you huh?!" Tyler said with a slight bit of anger in his voice.

"Don't remind me, I'm doing the best I can. Sheesh." Joel shrugged it off.

We exchange our in-game names, for other people's sake in case we make friends here, and beginning stats. Joel is Spark, same as his Xbox username, and Tyler is Faderz, also his Xbox. I should've seen it coming, I have no clue why I didn't honestly. We all have the same beginning stat points and we put them into our stats in which we want. I put mine into STR and AGI. Mostly into STR. We spent the rest of our time monster grinding and building up our stats and levels as best we can do, slashing and hacking away at a variety of monsters throughout the meadow. Laughing and battling, having a grand old time. This is the best video game experience I have ever had in my entire gaming career. After many hours have past as we battle a couple monsters and do a little exploring and we take a little break back where we first met up at. After talking about some stuff we have planned back in the real world, 5:25 rolls over.

Spark bolts up from his chair in a frantic panic. "Shit! I gotta go guys I got stuff I gotta do back at home and my mom's gonna kill me if I don't do my homework!" He quickly opens up his menu going thru every tab searching for the settings. Faderz and I sigh as we figures as much he would have to leave before us both. Within seconds of him finding the settings his face goes to a panic like expression to concerned. "Wait…what?" He hesitates with confusion. "What in the hell?"

"What's wrong?" Faderz says as he stands up. I stand up too. It's not normal for him to act like this.

Spark scratches his head. "There's no Logout button," he says with agitation in his voice as it cracks. We both check our menus.

"Wait, what no Logout button?"

"No Logout?"

Sure enough, both of us had no Logout button.

Faderz begins to go through his menus. "Let me see if I can contact the GM about this." I nod and also try.

"I'm with you on that one buddy that's not normal what so ever… no Logout?" My mind began racing because if we don't have one as a group, all of us players don't have one which definitely means its not a bug or a glitch. My mind begins to panic frantically. If we can't get out of here through a button how will we ever get out?! I'm gonna fail school and my family is gonna be super worried if I don't wake up. Shit, what do we do. As we all begin to panic, we all disappear as we are all teleported somewhere where every player in the game appeared to be in. This when I realized, this is no ordinary game.


	2. Chapter 2 - It's Game Over For Real

Chapter 2 - Game Over Means The End

It looked as if everyone in the game was teleported here in the plaza. I could hear the murmurs of confusion throughout the players for most of them had a bit of panic in their voice. They don't have a Logout button either by the sound of it. The sound of a bell toll goes throughout the plaza. Faderz looks over at me.  
"What the hell is going on man?!"

"The hell would I know?! I was a beta tester not a developer!" I grit my teeth n try to keep myself together. This is wrong, something's up and I got a bad feeling about it. A dome of red polygons form a dome each reading either "Warning" or "System Announcement". Soon after a blood red liquid begins to pour from the top forming a hooded figure in a red and yellow cloak. Sparks takes a step back.

"What in the royal fuck is that?!" I look up at it wide eyed and slightly terrified.

"I think we're 'bout to find out."

It puts its arms up extending them in our direction. "Attention players, I welcome you... to my world. My name is Akihiko Kayaba and as of this moment I am in control of this world."

Spark looked over me, "Is this guy for real Pyro?! Is that for real Kayaba?!"

"I dunno, I've never seen him in avatar, just in the game manual."

"I'm sure most of you have already noticed an item missing from your main menus, the Logout button." He swipes his hand down opening his own menu going to the settings showing there's no Logout button. I don't like where this is going. "Let me assure you this is not a defect in the game. I repeat, this is not a defect. This is how Sword Art Online was designed to be."

Faderz raises an eyebrow. "Wait, what?"

"Something about this doesn't seem right," Spark puts his hands on his hips and looks down slightly. Spark's right... this is going somewhere I don't like. Gives me a really bad feeling.

"You cannot log yourselves out of SAO... and no one from the outside will be able to shut down or remove the NerveGear from your head. If anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the NerveGear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life." Just then everyone started to panic out of disbelief.

"Cloud, I thought you said it's completely harmless and completely safe to use?! What the hell man?!" Spark turns to me frantically and wide eyed. Faderz stands in between us resting his arms on both of our shoulders.

"Hey, don't listen to this guy, there's no way that's a thing, it would be considered murder and it wouldn't have been able to even be launched. But even then go arguments sake, as long as they don't take off the NerveGear we can't die... right?"

"He's not bullshitting, the transmitter's signal in the NerveGear work just like a microwave and if you take off the protective thing it uses to keep them under control, they could get strong enough to fry your brain." The hell is Kayaba getting to about this. Spark looks at me again.

"Can't they just unplug it from the jack?"

"That won't work either 'cause the headgear as an internal battery that lasts... quite a while." Faderz takes his arms off us.

"Well what the hell then?! This is fucking nuts!"

Kayaba continues, "Despite my warning, the families and friends of some of the players have attempted removing the NerveGear. An unfortunate decision to say the least. As a result, the game now has 213 LESS players than when it began. They've been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world." 213?! I can't believe this is happening! What is he trying to accomplish?! A bunch of screens doming around behind him for all of us players to see appear each with a news channel on. "As you can see, international media outlets have around the clock coverage of everything... including the deaths. At this point, it's safe to assume the likelihood of a NerveGear being removed is minimal at best. I hope this brings you a little comfort as you try to clear the game. It's important to remember the following. There is no longer any way to revive someone within the game, if your HP drops to 0, your avatar will be deleted from the system... forever. And the NerveGear will simultaneously destroy your brain." Just then I got wide eyed and took a step back. This can't be real, why in the bloody hell would he pull this?! What's he want from this?!

"Guys, he's not bullshitting, there's no way he's not! We're completely fucked!" Spark and Faderz turns around and looks at me.

Faderz throws his arms to the side, "Well what the hell are we supposed to do then?!"

Sparks turn to him, "There's only one thing we CAN do... we have to beat the game."

Kayaba goes on, "There's only one way for a player to escape now, you must clear the game." He goes through his menus and pulls up a map of all of Aincrad. "Right now, you're gathered on Floor 1, lowest level of Aincrad. If you can get through the dungeon and defeat the boss, you may advance to the next floor. Defeat the boss on Floor 100, you will clear the game."

Faderz looks down wide eyed in disbelief, "We can't clear all 100. Not even the beta testers got that high! Not even close!"

Spark turns to me, "What Floor did you get up to again?"

"Floor 12"

Spark looks down, "Yep, we're fucked."

Kayaba puts his arm down and continues, "Last but not least, I've placed a little present in the item storage of every player, please have a look." We all open our menus and sure enough there was an item. I raise an eyebrow with confusion.

"A mirror?" I tap on it and a small hand mirror falls into my hand and a blue aura goes around every player as if we were being teleported an when it stopped our looks all changed as we all look at each other. It took me a while before it clicked in my head, it changed our avatars to what we look like in the real world. Spark and Faderz looks at each other and start yelling back and forth but I couldn't make it out till they look at me with confusion.

"...How?" Faderz asks almost speechless.

I put my hand to my chin deep in thought, "My guess... the calibrations we had to do when you first got it, when it told you to touch certain parts of your body a certain way, that's my logical answer."

Spark nods, "Makes sense."

Kayaba starts up again, "Right now you're probably wondering why? Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and NerveGear, do this? Ultimately, my goal was a simple one, the reason I created Sword Art Online was to control the fate of a world my design. As you can see, I have achieved my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck." He slowly began to glitch out of the graphics and red polygon dome dissipates. There was a long silence between everyone. He isn't joking, it's not a game... it's real. Akihiko Kayaba made the NerveGear and designed SAO. The man is a genius by definition and I've kept up with his studies as much as I could to entirely understand how he is trying to design and program both SAO and NerveGear. There's no way he'd bullshit about this especially in such fine detail. As much as I don't want to accept it, if I die in the game, I'll die in real life. I CAN'T let that happen. If it's the last thing I'll do, I'll break us all of this death trap. The silence breaks with a girl screams and everyone then loses their shit panicking, screaming, crying, and yelling random nonsense with disbelief. No wonder the beta was so hard. That way Kayaba knew it wouldn't be easily beaten.

I clench my fists and grit my teeth turning to the guys, "Guys, gather up as many players as you can! We need to break for the first town as soon as we can, monster start to spawn more rapid and stronger at night so we need to go! Gather up players and meet me at the market down the road!" They both nod and go in different directions and spread the word. I turn and sprint down the road pulling up my map and tracing a line of the paths based off memory. I bolt back to the marketplace and Faderz and Spark brought at least a good 20 players. I nod at them.

"Alright, you heard Kayaba. The only way we can get out of here is if we clear this god forsaken game. It's gonna be one hell of a ride but we all need to work together! We're gonna head to the first town and kill monsters as they spawn... or grinding as I like to put it. The way it works is anything you receive after battles you get to keep. If it's something you can't use it's your choice what to do with it, it still belongs to you technically. Whether you sell it or give it to another player is on you. Any questions?" One of them raised there hand and I point to them, "Go ahead."

A small girl walks up to the front, "What's your best recommendation for weapon choice?" That was unexpected. I scratch the back of my head and sigh.

"When it comes to weapons in SAO, each type has different pros and cons. Rapiers are average damage with easy maneuvering for quick attacks where as a battle axe requires a specific STR level and his very powerful yet can slow you down. Daggers are mostly used for hit and run attacks and long swords, and one handed swords are all around weapons so in the end the weapon choice is all on your battle style." Best I could put it. She smiles and steps back as I wait a few seconds before nodding again.

"Alright let's get this done! Everyone on me!" I unsheathe my sword and start to dash forward into the fields where many different monsters are spawned. Warthogs, huge flying bug like creatures, slimes, and skeletons. Activating one of my sword skills, my sword begins to glow a light blue before lunging forward stabbing the warthog and I pull my sword through its head ripping it out and the creature shatters into shards. As a group we started wiping out the fields at fairly decent rate. It's best if the whole game play and fight together but I highly doubt that will happen. I look around as I watch our group work together to fight off all the monsters. I hop in one of the fights that the 2 were struggling, pushing the monster back.

"Focus the power in your blade all into one point and when you feel your skill charge up," I put my blade on my shoulder and bend my knees staring at the monster as my sword glows red. "That's when you strike." I swing my sword in front of me showing off my basic sword skill. A simple slash. I smile and look over at her. "Now you try." She nods and grips her sword holding it out in front of her as a push the monster back leaving it wide open. Her sword glows red as the skill chargers. I nod at her again. "Yep, there you go. You feel the power of the skill flowing through your body?"

"Yeah, it's a really strong feeling. Like as if I'm the strongest thing alive."

"Good that means you've activated it. Now attack on my mark." I wail the monster with the butt of my sword as it cries out at me as it takes a swing at me. I block it attack with my sword and spin around kicking it in the head. "NOW!" She dashes forward and takes a big slash to its head slicing it in two slowly before shattering into shards, dissipating. Her face brightens up and jumps up in excitement as a victory pop up menu appears revealing her spoils from the battle. I pat her shoulder and give her a smile.

"You did good kid, not so bad for a newbie." She gives me a gentle smile and nods happily as her friends run up to her hugging her and congratulating her. I let out a small chuckle before heading out further into the field heading more and more closer to the town. I had everyone following now that the fields were wiped clean of monsters. From there on out it was paths free from monsters so we could sort out items, divide them up or just simple conversation. It's also easy on my part so I don't have to worry about losing anyone in the process. I kept following my trail I made earlier and so far it's been right the further we head the more I remember my surroundings from the beta. It's like that moment when you go back to your hometown for the first time in 10 years. It wasn't before long we walked into town through the town gates and they all cheered me on for whatever reason. I turn around and give everyone a gentle smile.

"You all did excellent out there! For new players, I'm impressed. So tonight, dinners on me!" I put my fist up and crack a grin just as everyone cheers and goes nuts having me chuckle a little. "Alright, let's head to the tavern then. They got pretty good food honestly." I let out a laugh before opening the door to the tavern and we all seat ourselves. Me being with my buddies. Tonight's gonna be a good one.


	3. Chapter 3 - Let the Hunt Begin

Chapter 3 - Let the Hunt Begin

I sit at the bar as I watch everyone have a good time. Of course this costed me a fortune but luckily I bribed the barmaid with half of my items and whatever left over col I could afford. Thank god for our hunt, or else tonight wouldn't have been a thing.

Faderz was doing his best, trying to pick up a couple of the girls over at one of the tables. Meanwhile, Spark did his best to keep up with trying to be a waiter. I couldn't help but smile as I watched everyone have a good time.

I look down at the small notebook that I'd been taking notes in as a guide to help new players as their journey in this hell hole begins. I then talked with some of the other beta testers, we're all making a basic guide book to give to everyone. Just a simple tutorial-type thing.

Spark walks up to me and takes the seat to my right and lets out a big sigh. "I gotta give my it to you buddy, you sure are one hell of a player to pull this off. Where'd you get the money to afford this?"

I look at him and give him a friendly smile. "Half of the items I looted that were useless to me I sold, then I used that money to pay for a full night for all of us."

He responds, "Pay for a full night? Like you rented this place out for the night?"

I tell him, "In a nutshell, yeah I did."

He nods and lets out another sigh.

"You see Tyler over there?" he asks.

I smile. "Yeah, he's gonna need more than charm to win these girls. Knowing his luck, the best he can get is an addition to his friends list. I doubt he'll win their heart just yet."

We both burst into laughter as I grab my glass and take a big swig of my drink. "Honestly, if all of us players work together we can beat this game in 9 months tops."

Spark looks at me, "What makes you so confident?"

I point to one of the players with black hair, gray eyes, and basic swordsman armor. "See that guy over there, he goes by the name of Kirito. He was one of the top better testers. Him and I were head to head for floor completion. When it comes to fighting style we're almost the same. If we can get more players like us and have everyone else back us up, we'll have this game beat in no time. Only problem is half of us won't survive with our luck. If 213 players are already dead before the thing with Kayaba, I'd hate to see how many die within the first few months." I take a big swig of my drink again and set it down behind me on the bar so the barmaid can give me another round. "That's the only thing I'm worried about, is that we'll lose players faster than we can level up. Though I'm not gonna let my doubts take over myself. I need to keep up my game if we're going to survive." I look to Sparks, "Hey Joel, say it was everyone to themselves, how long do you think it'll take to get out of here?"

He looks at me a bit concerned, "Hard to say honestly. I don't know." He takes a couple trays and hands out the food to everyone, making multiple trips.

In my peripherals, I check the time. It's 9:47pm, getting pretty late. I stand up and putting my arms up to stretch, taking a big sigh. "Well guys, I hope you all had a great time. You can continue to hang out and what not, I'm gonna head out."

I hear mixed comments telling me to take care and such. I wave my hand in the air as I walk out and open up my menu. I scroll through my items and equip my weapons and basic armor that look like plain clothes. High defense and agility stats for a basic armor. I take a deep breath and head out into the abandoned caverns. It's said to have items with a rarity far better than common drops, stronger monsters that are 10 levels above the zone level at night, and a hidden quest that none of the beta players found, not even me. As far as I know it's just a rumor. Doesn't hurt to take a chance though.

I unsheathe my sword and walk deeper into the cavern, keeping my guard up. You never know what could come out at you at night. I go through my menu once more and take out a lantern I bought when I was selling my junk items. I light it and strap it to my belt loop, securing it so I don't break it or it getting in my way during battle. I take a deep breath opening my mapping screen to map out the cavern as I explore. The fact that I haven't found anything yet is somewhat concerning. I keep one hand on the lantern to keep it stable as I walk over broken bits of what looks to be granite or marble piled in different areas of the cavern, and even bones. Just as I step over a pile of bones, a giant skeletal monster builds itself bit by bit, the bones coming together quickly. I grasp my sword and start slashing the bones as I draw it from the sheath letting out a short war cry.

All I could think was that I spoke to soon about there not being any monsters. I jump up onto the monster's shoulders grasping its head and rip it off as I push all my weight forward, causing it to fall back leaving it open for a stab to the ribs. I rush back slightly, evading its attack as it grabs another skull from the pile cracking it into place as it chuckles at me. I grit my teeth and growl at it as I charge up one of my skills. Dashing towards it, I throw my weight back. Sliding past it I slice its legs off then jump up and spin, slashing its spine multiple times. I quickly shift just in time to land on my feet and catch my balance. The skeleton glows a light blue, shattering into shards. I'm presented with a pop up titled "Battle Victory" and a menu showing me my battle spoils: basic junk and col.

I lean against the wall to catch my breath. "Ho...ly... shit. That... was a pain... in the ass!" I bend my knees and puts my hands on my thighs as I pant. If that was just a single skeleton, I'd hate to see what would happen if I get ambushed.

I stand back up and open my map, then follow the paths. It seemed a lot smaller outside on the surface. I take the left path as it comes to a fork. I ready my sword as I come to a large, empty room. I slowly walk around inside, waiting for something to jump out at me. I slowly scrape my sword on the wall as I walk, this immediately triggers 3 skeletons and a giant blue slime monster.

"Ok the slime is gonna be one hell of a pain to kill," I grit my teeth and dash forward, driving my sword into the slime, I then rip it out leaving a big gash causing it to die. It shatters into blue shards. "Well that was fairly easy. I'll keep that in mind."

I spin my sword by my side then rest it on my shoulder, bending my knees. I stand and take one step in front of me, then start running at the skeletons. I plant my feet into the ground throwing all my momentum forward, using it to spin multiple times slashing into the both before I hit the floor, panting. One of the skeletons raise its sword and takes a good slash at my stomach making my health bar lower by 23. I roll to the side a lot as the other two try to take a swing at me, causing my heart to race. I flip myself to my feet, stepping away from them to catch my balance. While I still can, I quickly map out the room and close it just in time to move to the right as one of the skeletons chucks its sword at me. My heart rate spikes as I pull it out of the wall. Having a sword in each hand I dash at one of them. I jump up spinning, hacking and slashing, I decapitate it and finishing it off. It falls apart into a pile of bones before shattering into shards.

Without hesitation, I take one strong swing at the other, slicing it in two. It tries to attack me at the last second before it dies. I turn my head to the last one as I pant like a dog. I flip the sword so I'm holding it by the blade and throw it at the skeleton. It goes straight through its skull, instantly killing it. I fall to my hands and knees, trying to catch my breath again while closing out my battle spoils menu.

I sheath my sword as I stand back up. Checking my stats I notice I lost 149HP all together since I came into the cave. I swipe my hand down and go through my inventory. I select a heath potion and a hectogon shaped glass filled with a red liquid and a shiny silver point at the top falls into my hand. I close my menu and lean against the wall, drinking it. It doesn't have a distinct flavor or taste but it feels nice going down. When I finish it my health bar fills as the potion glass shatters in my hand. I open my map again and begin to head back to the fork and go down the other path, checking my lantern to find a small crack in the glass. I let out a disappointed sigh as I shake my head.

I start going down the other path mapping it out. I don't know if the crack in my lantern lowers the selling price or requires repairs but I'll keep it for a while longer. As I continue down the path I'm stopped dead in my tracks when more slimes grew out of the cracks in the walls.

I smirk as I unsheathe my sword, swing downwards slicing one in half. I then swiftly move to the right, shifting my weight causing me to spin. I follow it with a side slash cutting the other slime in half, killing it. Both explode into shards when they die and I'm rewarded with more junk battle spoils.

After accepting them and organizing them, I head into the next room. As I walk in I hear faint soft noise. Putting my hand on the handle of my sword I walk around following the sound. I get around a corner then jump out drawing my sword to find a young girl curled in a ball, crying. I sigh with relief as I sheathe my sword.

"Hey, you OK?" I take a knee next to her gently putting my hand on her head.

She slowly looks up at me with tears in her eyes and her voice being very shaky. She lunges, wrapping her arms around me, hugging me like there's no tomorrow and burying her face in my chest. I hesitantly wrap my arms around her, holding her close as I gently stroke her hair.

"Hey, you're gonna be OK. I promise, I'm gonna get you outta here." I pick her up off the ground and carry her out carefully. I'm glad I found her when I did, for all I know the monsters would've respawned and killed her. I keep her close as I carry her to an inn and rent us a room for the night. I can feel her weight slump into my arms from falling asleep while carrying her. She must've been scared shitless. I gently lie her on the bed and tuck her in before taking a seat in the chair next to the desk then let out a long sigh. It's been a long night, a rough one at that. I didn't lose that much health but I still overworked myself. I feel like I just fought a war all on my own.

"Why did you save me?" she whispers.

I perk my head up quickly and look over at her, "Excuse me?"

"Back in the caverns. Why'd you save me?" she explains.

I tilt my head lightly with confusion.

"Why not? I'm not gonna let anyone die on my watch. Especially if I were to just abandon you in there to die."

She sits up and stares at the covers for a few seconds before looking up at me. Slowly a heart filled smile comes across her face. "Thank you... I really appreciate it. I thought I was done for and was gonna die when I heard the monsters growling and roaring outside the room I was in. All I could think about was, I was going to die. Then the next thing I know you're right in front of me. At first I thought I was dreaming or hallucinating until you put your hand on my head, then I knew it was real. Thank you. Honestly, thank you."

I couldn't help but smile at her. "You're welcome. I won't leave anyone to die, no one. My name's Pyro."

"I'm Karou!" She nods at me as I send her a friend request. She accepts and and cracks a grin.

This is gonna be one interesting night. New friend, new gear, new skills, new stats, new party member.


	4. Chapter 4 - One Month Later

Chapter 4 - One Month Later

It's been a month since SAO was first launched and the roughest month I've ever been through. With people dropping like flies on a bug zapper, it's been even harder to get anything done. Roughly 2,000 people have died already and we have yet to defeat the first floor boss. In fact we have a mission briefing later since the boss room was just recently found. The only problem is that all the quests are almost wiped clean and most of us are running out of money just to get by. Faderz, Spark, and I have just about 10,000 col combined. Luckily we have a few friends who run item shops and inns that give us some leeway for purchasing from them. Not a lot but it's better than none. Karou is a dagger wielder, one in each hand with a high AGI stat. Tyler has already tried flirting to make her his but that didn't go well. He may or may not have gotten his ass kicked, badly. I had to split the two of them up it was so bad. We have all leveled up pretty well considering the circumstances.

Though this Kirito guy stays to himself as for being with a party, or anyone for that matter. I'm curious what goes on in his head.

Several of us gather around on the seats to an outdoor theater like place. There's one guy standing where the stage should be. He claps a few times, "Ok people, now that everyone's here let's get this meeting started! So, I wanna thank you all for coming! It's good to see you. My name is Diabel and in this game the job I rolled is 'Knight'!"

He puts his fist to his chest as a few of us laugh at him. Mainly because there are no "jobs" in SAO like in Final Fantasy or other MMO games. Diabel grits his teeth and gently growls. "Do you guys wanna hear this or not?!" We all settle down as we refocus on why we're here. Just as we did, his face became more serious. "Right, anyway here's the deal. Our party found the boss room at the top of the tower today." Everyone immediately start mumbling random things out in shock and disbelief. "First, we need to defeat the boss and make it to Floor Two. The next step is, we have to tell everyone waiting in the Town of Beginnings that it IS possible to beat this game! Fact is, it's our duty as the most capable players here! Do you agree or not?!"

We start to turn to one another and murmur amongst ourselves once more before nodding in agreeance and applaud. Karou, Spark, Faderz, and I stay silent paying no attention to everyone except Diabel waiting for what he has to say next. "Ok! Glad to hear you're all with me on this! Now let's figure out HOW exactly we're going to beat the boss. First off, we'll team up into parties of six! A typical party doesn't stand a chance against a floor boss. We need a raid group made up of multiple parties!"

As he's explaining, everyone has already partied up with each other leaving us and a few other players. Our party is already made up of four people so it should be good enough already. Everyone had already made discussion on clearing the floor boss and strategies. Diabel gave us a few minutes before starting his little speech again. "Alright! Looks like everyone's teamed up! Now then-"

"HOLD UP A SEC!" One of the players jumped down the stairs skipping several of them at a time and land next to Diabel. "My names Kibaou got that?! Before we take on the boss I wanna get something off my chest. We all know about the two thousand people who've died so far, yea?! Well some of you need to apologize to 'em right now!"

He points to all of us as an audience, not individually. I could hear the murmurs going around as if we're all guilty in our own way. Diabel turns to him. "Kibaou, I think I know who you're referring to. You mean the ones who were ex-beta testers, right?"

"Of course I mean them! The day this stupid ass game started the beta guys just up and vanished right?! They ditched all us beginners! They snagged all the good hunting spots AND they grabbed all the easy quests too. They were the only ones getting stronger in here. This whole time they ignored us like we're nothing. Hell, I bet there's some of them here! Come on out beta testers! We should make them apologize to us and we should make them all give up their money AND the items they got! They can't expect the party to trust them when they don't even trust us. Why should we?!"

I grit my teeth and look down slightly clenching my fists as Karou looks at me and realizes I'm one of them but doesn't say anything while Faderz puts his arm around me, telling me they won't let them do anything to me. I'm one of the few players that were beta testers that give a shit about the other players. I don't know how many of us were here but I could feel their pain since I'm one myself. A voice from the audience speaks up. It was a well built older black man, raising his hand before he stands up in front of Kibaou. "Can I say something? Hey, my name's Agil. Kibaou right? I wanna make sure I'm on the same page. You say the ex-beta testers should be blamed for the rookies deaths because they didn't help them and you want them to apologize and give up their winnings. I leave anything out?" Kibaou gives him a glare, "No you didn't." Agil reaches in his back pocket and pulls out a small handbook.

"The item store handed these out for free... it's a guidebook. You got one didn't you?"

"Sure I got one. So, what about it?"

"You know who was handing these out? The ex-beta testers." Everyone immediately gave out shocked remarks in disbelief as my eyes grow wide. It's the handbook I wrote and made! I made a few of them and gave them out to different item shops. They must've made more copies for everyone to have. Spark looks over at me.

"Pyro... is that-"

"Yeah, it is. They must've made more copies of them and handed them out to everyone. It's got the basic information for any player to know. Menus, items, skill trees, everything." Agil turned to us and taps the guidebook with the back of his hand.

"Listen up, everyone had equal access to this information. Even so, lots of players still died. Now I didn't come here to point fingers at anyone, I'm here because I wanna learn from those players deaths. I wanna find out how we're gonna beat the damn boss." He turns to Kibaou as Kibaou let's out an agitated growl and sits down with the rest of us and so does Agil. Diabel pulls out his guidebook from his back pocket and continues on. "Ok, can we get back to the meeting now? For info on the boss, it's all in here; the latest issue of the guide book you've just heard about. According to the book, the boss's name is Illfang the Kobold Lord... also he'll be surrounded by his minions, the Ruin Kobold Sentinels. Illfang carries an axe and a buckler. He has four health bars and when the last one turns red, he switches to a curved sword type weapon called a Talwar. He can change his patterns of attack too."

The quiet discussion between players fills the area as they talk amongst themselves about the briefing. Diabel closes his book and puts it away, "That's it for now! As for the distribution of loot, money will be divided equally among everyone. The party that defeats the boss, gets the XP AND whoever gets an item, gets to keep it. Any objections? " He waits a few seconds while players continue to talk amongst themselves. "Good! We leave tomorrow at ten! Meeting adjourned people!" We all go to our own business as my group stands up and heads into town.

Karou tapped me on the shoulder. "Can I have a word?" I nod my head at the boys as they continue on and I stay back. "You're an ex-beta tester aren't you? The way you looked when he called them out. You were one of them."

I scratch the back of my head and let out a sigh. "Yeah, I am.. but to be honest, I'm one of the few testers who care and give a shit about the players. That guidebook they talked about, I'm the one who wrote it. As I cleared dungeons and explored the whole floor, I took notes on the monsters, areas, dungeons, and gave a brief tutorial on the game mechanics." She tilted her head with slight curiosity.

"And how did you get the info on the boss if no one found it till recently." I tap my temple with my finger and smile.

"Memory, I remember that boss so well. Mainly from fighting him so many times. When I got low on health I'd bail and train and farm XP till I gained another few levels and tried again. I've gotten close so many times but when he pulls out the talwar he goes full on rage mode. When he takes a swing he will make sure he hits his target. Best if you parry or block." She nods and lets out a long sigh.

"You OK?" I ask in slight concern.

"Yeah, it's just... I'm only level 5 and most are already 10 or in the teens."

I cross my arms and smile. "Wanna go on a hunt then?"

"Where?" She perks her head up slightly.

A smirk forms on my face, "In the floor dungeon."

Her eyes widen instantly, "IN THE DUNG- Are you nuts?! I'll die within the first battle!"

"That's what you have me for... I'll be the tank and you deal the damage. I'll protect you and let you get the XP you need. On the bright side, dungeon monsters reward an additional four percent of XP than most monsters."

She hesitates while gripping the handles of her daggers. "Fine, I'll do it BUT the second I reach a quarter of my health we are bailing ... IMMEDIATELY." She says as she grabs the collar of my shirt and pulls me into her face.

I chuckle. "Alright alright, deal." She lets me go and a huge smile goes across her face.

Just the look in her eyes gives my heart a small tender feeling. "Ready whenever you are Karou" I start walking towards the tower as she skips behind me with a big smile on her face just before I kick the door in and grab my sword holding it out in front of my body, slowly walking in with her behind me, pulling out both of her daggers and pushing her back against mine.

Before long a bunch of Kobold Sentinels bolted at us, preparing for an ambush. As they charge at us, I see them in my peripheral vision and spin around knocking them on their asses while the others run past them gripping their maces getting ready to take a swing on us.

"Karou, take the left! I got these ones!" I put up my sword over my face just in time when a couple jump up and slam their maces against my sword. I force my weight to push him off and roll to the side just as the other two slam their maces on the floor where I was pinned. Using the momentum of the roll, I kick myself up onto my feet as Karou lunges at the two that just slammed down, ramming her daggers into the back of their necks and rips them to the sides decapitating them and making them explode into shards looking back at me as I nod at her. Shining my sword to my side, I parry one of the Sentinels knocking it back towards Karou. She spins her daggers around her hands and jab them into its back lifting it over her head then throws it onto the floor, throwing one of her daggers into its head making it explode into shards once more.

Taking a step back, I shift my weight hacking my sword into the last Sentinel knocking him back a good distance. I take a knee as Karou runs at me and uses my back as a spring-board doing a flip and uses her weight to stab her daggers into it finishing it off, causing it to explode into shards as a pop-up menu is presented in front of us rewarding her greatly from doing all the work where as I got a small share of the winnings; which is fine by me since we did come here for her to grind XP. Karou looks over at me panting like a dog.

"You OK new blood?" I turn to her and using my sword as a cane to get myself back up onto my feet. Panting in between words she manages to say 'Yeah' practically worn out completely. Nodding my head slightly, I sheath my sword in its scabbard, walking to her and throwing my weight on the wall as she sits down leaning against the wall right beside me. "Take a breather and when you're ready we'll head deeper into the dungeon… fucking hell I wasn't expecting that many."

Chuckling she looks up at me, "No shit Sherlock and it was YOUR idea to come here to grind."

I laugh a bit, "Yeah, you leveled up didn't you?"

"Three times actually."

"Good, once you're good and ready to continue let me know… and I'll take you to where the big fish are at." I open my menu and hand her a Healing Potion. She takes it happily and chugs it down. They never have a specific flavor or taste but it feels nice and refreshing going down. You can feel the effect hit you as you drink it. When the potion canister shatters I get a message from Sparks. 'Where the hell are you man?! You up 'n' left us we've been waiting at the Inn for a good hour and a half! The fuck man?!' I chuckle softly and sigh replying to him with a simple 'Went out with the new blood to get her some XP and show her the ropes.' and close out the menus. Karou looks up at me with a worried look on her face.

"What was that all about?"

I put my hands behind the back of my head and chuckle, "The boys got a little pissy with us up and leaving but its all good. I let them know what's going on and they'll understand more than likely." I fix my hair some and let out a sigh hyped for more fighting. "You ready new blood?" I hold out my hand to her and she grabs my wrist as I take hers pulling her up on her feet. She manages to crack a grin and puts her fist to her chest eagerly.

"Hell yeah, let's do this."

I tap the front of my hand on her chest armor and smile, "That's the spirit!" I grab the handle of my sword and unsheathe it as I dash deeper into the dungeon as she laughs following me holding her daggers with the blades facing behind her.


	5. Chapter 5 - Near Death Experience

Chapter 5 - Near Death Experience

We continue running down the maze of hallways within the dungeon with Karou behind me and a small map window in the corner of my eye visually. We encountered lots of Kobold Sentinels but that is expected in this dungeon being the Floor One dungeon. It was obvious that Karou can hold her own being the little badass she is. All she really need now is someone to guide her in the right direction on how to fight without having to be a tank. Although I'm a hypocrite for saying it with having little to no armor and take hardly as much damage to players that try to even out their stats or wear really heavy armor with high defense stats. There's nothing to brag about though, I'm nothing special. Just another player stuck in this game.

Shaking my head from being deep in thought I stop at a small intersection and zoom out on the map and turn to her, "Where you wanna go kiddo?"

She let's out a puff wiping her forehead with the back of her hand, "First off, I'm no kid. Second, let's go left. I feel like we'll find something somewhat decent of interest."

"That's a mouthful all on its own. Alright then let's go." I swipe my map over the left side of our area just as more Sentinels surround us from all directions. There's about 4 or 5 of them on each side as I let out a sigh gripping the handle of my sword. "Y'all really don't know when to quit. It's starting to get really annoying." Flicking my head to on side getting my hair out of my eye before bending my knees for Karou. She bolts at me and jumps on my back and uses it as a springboard, back flipping and landing on the Sentinels behind me killing the two she lands on. Just shortly after she spins around behind her and throws her daggers out to her sides stunning them long enough to buy her the time to run up to one snatching the mace from its hands wailing him with it like a baseball bat. As she takes care of those, I bolt straight ahead of me as the rest of the Sentinels try to surround me. I turn my sword around so the tip of the blade faces down and jump on the wall, kicking off it doing a quick yet small flip fast enough to land on my feet and give momentum for there to be more power in the blow, driving my sword through one of the Sentinel's entire body killing him within seconds. I turn my head to the side just to see a Sentinel drop his mace down on my head getting a good hit in, knocking me back enough for another to take a good hit in to knock me on my back. I put my hand on the back of the blade with it in front of me just in time to block several blows enough to get them off me one at a time.

"Shit, Karou gimme a hand here please!" I kick a few of them back swinging my blade to parry their blows but can't get back up. "Today would be nice!"

Out of breath she tosses her dagger in the air enough to catch it by the blade without making a full spin and chucks it like a tomahawk, impaling one of the Sentinels in the back of the head and throws the other at the one on top of me. When both die I put my hands by my head lifting my legs up and use the momentum to push myself back on my feet but land on a Sentinel, pinning it. Panting I stomp on its head crushing it while Karou fights off the others.

"Pyro, you good? I thought you were an over powered badass?"

"Yeah, well even over powered badasses can get in tight situations. I may be strong and deadly but I'm not unkillable or indestructible." I lean against the wall with my back to it as Karou hands me a healing potion and gently taps her knuckles on my chest.

"So under the tough and speedy guy there's a soft spot after all." Taking the potion and chugging it down, I exhale sharply looking at her.

"What you mean?"

"I mean that there's a side of you that isn't all stone cold and hardcore."

"I mean yeah, to every soldier there's a loving, passionate side."

"I like it... it's cute."

"Don't get too used to it."

I close my eyes and lift my head towards the ceiling catching my breath. As I do, she goes to the other side of the hallway and tinkers with her daggers. We hang out a good while just chilling and take a small break before going back to grinding out item drops, col, and XP. I halt in my tracks as we enter a new room and Karou stops right behind. Something about it gave me an uncomfortable feeling in my throat. It may not be marked off for explored on the map but either way I got a bad feeling about this.

"Pyro what's going on, what's up with you?"

"Something doesn't feel right about this room. Hold your breath when I say so," I go through my inventory and take out a small orb like item.

"What's that?" She looks at it with a confused look before looking back up at me.

"You'll see soon enough. On three, hold your breath or use your shirt as a filter. One... two... Now!" Chucking it into the room, we both hold out breath as the orb explodes into a big yellow gas like fog. The item is supposed to be used as a smoke grenade. It's a decent item too. I got from a loot chest. Grabbing her hand, I walk into it focusing my hearing going through the gas slowly and carefully. I close my eyes standing in the middle of the room slowing my breaths to long slow deep breathes focusing all my senses into my hearing with Karou beside me confused.

"Pyro, what in the bloody fuck are you doing?!" She coughs a few times as the gas slowly clears where another player standing in front of us. He wore a steel like mask cover (similar to what they use in paintball), a shredded black cloak, hardly any armor on and a good few brand new daggers on his waist. At least five of them all together. Karou looks at him her eyes widen in fear as I grab her arm having her stay there as I walk up a step or two.

"Why were you sneaking up on us? Hiding like a coward, and using invisibility potions."

He let's out a snicker, "Wouldn't you like to know. Why ask questions you don't want the answers to?" He let's out a good hard chuckle as he stared at us intensively. The feeling in my throat got worse. Something's not right about this guy. He smirked with a huge smile on his face grabbing two of his daggers in one hand. "Whatever you do... don't blink." Seconds after he bolted at me stabbing me in the chest with both daggers, lifting me over his head letting gravity deal damage to me. The deeper they went in it activated a poison of some kind giving me a paralysis status. Gasping for a breath, Karou kicked him right on his chest enough for him to drop me and take a few steps back. I drop to the floor and roll onto my back coughing unable to move or function.

Karou grabbed her daggers and got in a defensive stance in front of me, "A PKer, huh. Think you can ambush us that easily?! Here's a newsflash buddy, you ain't getting put of here alive!" He chuckles adjusting his mask before laughing in hysteric.

"That makes two of us... little girl," he grabbed a long katana like sword and one of his daggers his dagger blade facing behind him and the katana out in front of him. I look at the two of them unable to move below my neck as I lay on the floor my sword next to me to my right. His daggers are still lodged in my chest.

"K...Karou! Get these out of my chest, quick! I might be able to move if you do!" She stays staring at him before jerking around lunging over me grabbing the daggers out as she tuck and rolls. Just in the nick of time she turns around by reflex catching a dagger he threw intending to hit her while she's open and vulnerable. Examining the daggers they were tipped with paralysis poison just right so it inflicts the status aliment upon impact. Throwing it aside, Karou looks over at him as he's chuckling in a deep creepy voice.

"You really think you can defeat me that easily?"

"As a matter of fact, yes... I do." She bends down and picks up my sword and swings it around just to get used to the weight of it. She lays the back of the blade on her shoulder as the blade slowly begins to glow a light blue, charging up and activating a skill. He flips the back his jacket back pulling out a few more daggers laughing. They both stare at each other for a few seconds before he bolts at her full speed getting ready to take a swing. The status aliment icon disappears and I gain control of my body. I just in the nick of time get up onto my feet, holding my arm out as he swings slicing my arm off. The limb hits the ground puffing into blue shards shattering. I pant softly as my health depleted slowly from a heavy bleed effect.

Karou get wide-eyed in shock staring at my arm, "Oh my god are you OK?!" I pant softly with quick puffs.

"Yeah, I'm good." I spin around kicking his dagger out of his hand as he tries to get another hit in before I kick him square in the face knocking him on his ass. "You think you can go around killing people and think nothing will happen?" I slowly walk to him as he groans slowly sitting up looking up at me gritting his teeth. "You really think you can be a murderer and get away with it?! WELL THINK AGAIN!" I grab my sword from Karou and drive it deep into his chest. "Not on my watch!" I shout over the top of my lungs as he groans being immobilized, small shards floating out of his chest like ash from a fire. I slowly twist the blade as he tries to pull it out of him, struggling "You reap what you sow. Is that how they say it in America?"

He struggles more and more trying to break free, "You don't have the balls to kill me you pie-"

Right before he could finish saying what he wanted to say I take out the sword from his chest and ram it into his jugular, decapitating him. His head rolls away from his body, small shards spewing everywhere like a bleed effect happening to my arm before his entire body puffs into shards. I puff out short yet deep breaths, panting softly as my sight goes hazy. Karou stare at me as my player icon remains blue. She raises an eyebrow putting one of her hands on her hip.

"I thought he said you would be an orange player."

I pant softly leaning against the wall putting my hand over the "bleeding" area of my arm, "Only if I were to do it several times back to back. I would have to do it a good bit before I become labeled as orange." I swipe open my menu and pop out a potion, putting it to my mouth and chug it down.

"So... what's gonna happen to your arm?" She crosses her arm leaning against the wall staring at me.

"Give it a good few hours maybe a day at most and it'll recover to normal. For now I just need to keep the bleed affect from even appearing 'n' taking affect and I should be fine."

I slowly stand up and scroll through my inventory and take out a small fern and crush it in my hand and put a bit of it in the back of my mouth and chew it.

"What's that?" She looks at my hand as I chew it. I walk up to her holding my hand out for her to take some.

"It's an antidote fern. Prevents any aftershock effects of the weapon poison he used on us. Take some it works, trust me this isn't my first rodeo. I'm an ex-beta tester after all." She takes a small pinch and puts it in her mouth and gags trying to chew it. "What'd you expect, peppermint?" I curl my hand into a fist holding it as I use my index finger to go through the inventory taking out a small leather pouch and slowly pour the let the crushed fern into it.

Halfway in doing so Karou shutters in utter disgust, "How does the taste not phase you at all?!"

"Don't let it touch your tongue, that's when it tastes nasty. Gnaw on it like it were a toothpick." I pick up the pouch and put it in my inventory letting out a long sigh. "Now, you wanna head out or keep going? We got a good 8 hours left until the dungeon raid. I can do this all day so it's all on you." She gags a bit more shuttering in disgust, worse than earlier, her mind still on the crushed fern.

"Are you supposed to swallow it?"

"No, when there's no more crunch to it, you spit it out." Before the words could come out of my mouth, she spit it out and then some; completely grossed out. I couldn't help but chuckle. I was the same way when I first tasted it.

I slowly lean against the wall looking over at her, "So you wanna head back or keep going?" She hesitates looking at my arm as the bleed affect fades away. She bites her lip and let's out a sigh.

"You're hurt so the last thing I want is for you to get any worse. Let's get out of here and back to your crew before we get ambushed again." She sheaths her daggers as I do the same with my sword. Side by side we walk down through the maze of hallways having small talk, following my map back to the surface.


	6. Chapter 6 - Karou's Story

Chapter 6 - Karou's Story

My sight goes blank white as all my senses go numb for a few seconds then regain them slowly. I'm standing in the middle of the plaza of the Town of Beginnings with Karou next to me. I look down at my left side where I had lost most of my arm from the fight with that Player Killer or PKer as we call them. Surprisingly there's still daylight out even though it's around 5 in the afternoon. I open my menus and scroll through my friends list. After I find Faderz and Spark, I tap on their names and send them a message.

'At the fountain in Town of Beginnings. Got attacked so we bailed early.' I hit the send button and dismiss my menus as I sit on the edge of the fountain. Karou goes over to the item vender just next to the fountain selling her junk items. It wasn't before long that they came waltzing down the road towards us. When they saw us they ran up to me with Faderz's eyes wide staring at my arm.

"Good God what in the bloody hell happened to you?! Your whole arm is... WHAT?! Spill it man!"

"Jesus Faderz calm down. We got jumped by a PKer... used a paralysis poison polished on his blades which hit me and knocked me out for a bit. When it rubbed off I took a blow for her and yeah."

Spark pinches the bridge of his nose by the corner of his eyes shaking his head, "This is exactly why you take us with you. For this exact reason what if we lost you both in there?" He looks at me with a serious look. I let out a sigh and tap his shoulder as I walk past him.

"If it happens it happens. Nothing I can do about it but serious calm the hell down. Now let's go grab a bite I'm starving." I look behind me while Karou is still loafing around, picking and poking through the shops. "Hey Karou you coming or you wanna be left behind?" Her head jerks in our direction and she bolts towards us then slows down to a brisk walk, walking with us as we discuss what Karou and I did before getting jumped. Several people stared at me on the way there and even in the inn's restaurant area.

Spark looks over at Karou with hesitation, "H-hey Karou." She looks up at him ripping a bit of her turkey off the bone. "Mind if I ask what you were doing in that mini-dungeon that one night?" She paused for a moment before continue chewing and swallows.

"I might as well start from the beginning. Back when Kayaba first announced how SAO runs and if you die you'll die for real, I was just by myself scared out of my mind. I don't wanna die... I'm still just a kid. When Pyro gathered up as much of as he did, I was one of those people he took along. The way he trained us and taught us how the game works. We need more people like him. During the training a group came up to me and invited me to join them since I was all alone. I accepted simply because I was afraid of being on my own in here, in this game, in this death trap. I hung out with them for a long while, training and grinding out money and items. Soon to think I was able to trust them enough to be my friends.

Guru, who was the joker of the group. He used a sword and shield and was our tank so to speak. He always tried to keep a smile on our faces even when our life is on the line. He didn't care if he died or not, as long as the rest of us were safe he would go out of his way to do anything to help people.

Then there's Ravel. The leader of the crew, always thirsty for battle and runs head first in any hostile encounter. He's one of the best heavy battle-ax user I've ever seen in all of SAO. He was teaching himself how to be a blacksmith since he was one in the real world. He would be the powerhouse of the group taking most of the aggro and dealing most of the damage. Although he makes sure we all get a good amount of damage in to get XP and col. Other than that he's mostly a laid back and chill with just about anything. You could try to insult him and he'll take it with a grain of salt. Raven looked out for all of us like his family.

"Yo guys get a load of this!" Guru waved over at us as he found a NPC. Raven and I kill off the monster we were fighting and run off in his direction.

Raven put his hand on Guru's shoulder, "What's up kiddo? What's the fuss about?" I look up at Guru as he has a big grin on his face.

"I got us a quest-giver! Wanna check it out and see if we can do this thing?" Guru looks over at Raven with his menus open going through his quest list. Raven opens his own marking off the quest we just finished and nods closing his menus. Guru chuckles happily as he closes his menu. "Hey there! How are you?"

The NPC looks up at him and gives him a gentle smile as a small question mark icon appears over her head, "I'm doing well however, I'm not so sure about my husband. He left to the mines yesterday and hasn't returned. I'm so worried about him."

Guru his hand on his hip and waves his hand slightly, "Well where's these mines he went to we can go find him and bring him home."

Her face brightens up and nods, "He went into the mines just south of the grass fields. Thought I should warn you those mines are nearly abandoned so who knows what you'll find in there."

Guru put his fist to his chest with a huge confident grin on his face, "Don't sweat it, we'll be fine. We'll get your husband back you have our word." Sharing the quest to the rest of us he opens his map and highlights a path to the area we needed to go. It was a good while away but with Guru's exploration skill as high as it is, it shouldn't be all that bad. We were about halfway there before a bunch of trash mobs spawned right in front of us. Right then and there Guru dismissed his menus with a single swipe and drew out sword parrying the first attack the Dire Boar attempted by charging at us. I took out my daggers holding one facing in front of my and the other behind me while Raven drew out his battle-ax.

Raven laughed setting the long handle of his battle-ax on his shoulder as it slowly charged up and activating the skill he was about to use, "FINALLY some excitement! Karou flank around the other 3 and knock them out one by one! Guru, draw their aggro to you!"

Guru wailed his shield against the charging boar knocking it back for me to hit a few blows following up one attack after another. Guru kept tanking every bit of aggro he can get bashing his shield against it to parry each charge from the 3 boars. Raven jumped up and charged his battle-ax driving it through one splitting it in half for it to puff into shards. I jumped on top of one mounting it and stabbing its head repeatedly nonstop until it drops me to my feet and exploding it's shards. Guru let's out a war cry as he charged up his sword tossing his shield aside blocking one last charge of the Dire Boar to push it back spin around several times slashing his sword into its head knocking it back bit by bit dealing massive amounts of damage. He plants his feet twisting his hips just in time to drive his sword straight through its entire body killing it instantly.

He pants heavily and laughs, "That was awesome! One of the better trash mob fights we've had so far!" Raven laughs with him patting his shoulder and nods. They both look over at me as I pant sorting through my inventory. "Hey Karou, you get anything good?"

I let out a soft puff and looks back at them, "Yeah, I got a bunch of col and a pair of decent gloves. A bit flashy but they'll do. They give a bonus col gain effect." I put them on and adjust them so they fit comfortably.

Raven gives me a nod before patting my back, "Well let's keep trucking then shall we. Oh and Karou, Guru." We both look in his direction. "If anything happens to me at all... I want you both to have this." He opens his inventory and gives us both a weapon and off-hand accessory. He gave me two over powered daggers and an arm bracelet that goes over my bicep. He gives Guru what looked to be a giant adamantine forged long sword and shield.

Guru looks over at him in confusion, "What's all this for homie? I'll take them without a second of hesitation but what's all this for man?" I nod my head on agreement.

"These are my own work. I've been trying to forge weapons strong enough to deal strong damage against the boss when we find it. I spent more col than you can imagine but these are my finest work and I've been meaning to give it to you guys. My treat." He gives us a gentle smile as we both accept and equip them. My eyes grow wide as my stats sky-rocket.

"How much did all of this cost you?! Plus 310 on all stats?!"

He let's out a good long laugh, "Like I said it cost me more than you can imagine. Over forty thousand col." Guru and I look at each other in utter shock. Just the way he looked I knew him and I had the same thoughts. These were why he went out solo at night. He was grinding out col to make us all weapons. Since it's still Floor 1 you can't find the materials all on your own. Either he bought info from an info broker to find where he could get his hands on the materials or he bribed the player blacksmiths for the materials. I took out my new daggers as they fall in my hands. I struggled just holding them they were so heavy. Guru had the same issue with his shield being extremely heavy.

"Tell you guys what, when we get there I'll tank out the aggro and let you guys get comfortable with those new weapons so you can use them more effectively in combat. Sound good?" Guru sheaths his sword and slides his shield down the strap so it's on his back. I sheath mine in the little scabbard that's on the thighs of my armor. Guru lead the way for the rest of the trip. By the time we got there it was still light out with a lot of time left before nightfall.

Guru dismisses his map and crosses his arms, "So this is it huh. Well... let's do this." He takes a deep breath walking in as its pitch black. "God damn it's fucking dark as hell no wonder he'd be lost in this place. Anyone got anything for night vision?"

Raven keeps his battle-ax over his shoulder shaking his head, "Nah... I don't even know if that's even a thing in here. If so it must be a skill you unlock in later floors or items from later floors. However, I do have a lantern."

"Perfect! You wanna lead the way Mr. Badass?" Guru looks back at him with a grin as always. I stayed behind them both as a force of habit. Raven opens his inventory and a small lantern fades into form dropping into Raven's hand. Leading the way Raven holds the lantern in front of him going deeper and deeper in the mines. As empty as it was it gave me a bad feeling. Something didn't feel right about this area. In a good distance we could hear what sounded like a voice so we followed the direction it was coming from.

There was an old man with his legs crushed under a giant boulder, "Please! You three please help me!" Raven dropping the lantern next to the boulder, we all rush to him.

Guru looked down at him, "Don't worry old-timer we gotcha. We're gonna get you outta here." Raven and Guru got on opposite sides of the boulder. "Karou on my mark drag him out. We're gonna lift it up enough for him to get out from under it, alright?" I nod my head and kneel down. "Alright... 1... 2... LIFT." They both struggle lifting it but slowly get it up. Once there's a good gap I grab him from under his shoulders and drag him out just in time for them to let out a big puff dropping the boulder.

Guru gets the old man's arm around his neck and carries him helping him out. The old man lets out short puffs of air, "Thank you very much. I though I was a goner."

Guru chuckles, "We're not out of the woods yet old-timer. We gotta get out of here." We try to back track out of there as the whole place starts to rumble and shake. "YO! What the bloody hell is going on?! Is this part of the quest?!"

Raven tries to maintain his balance, "Something tells me no! Guru keep going, Karou and I got your back!" He nods picking up the pace as I could see a large Rock Golem charging in our direction.

"Shit... GURU! Keep going we got this get the old-timer out here we'll hold these off and catch up!" He takes a step forward and twists his hips to take a long swing knocking it back a good 20 feet. The ceiling starts to collapse splitting us from Guru. I grit my teeth and jump on Raven's back using it as a springboard diving towards the golem in front, driving my daggers in its chest. I wrap my legs around its neck, throwing my weight back to force it to lean forward and flip over me, landing on its neck and decapitating it. I push myself up on my feet as it puffs into shards just look up and get wailed really hard flying me back all the way to the wall dealing about a quarter of my health.

My sight gets hazy as Raven takes one swing after another getting hit left and right, "Karou get out of here! There's a path leading to the entrance from where these idiots came from."

"What about you?!" I stand up and run over in his direction through the golems.

"Don't worry about me I can handle these guys just meet up with Guru!"

I stop in my tracks looking back at him. I stare at him for a good minute before shaking my head and running into the darkness. I kept running and running taking the path to an empty room. It wasn't on the map nor an area we were going through when we first got here. I couldn't help but feel useless and hopeless. I curled my knees into my chest with my back against the wall crying into my arms. For all I knew Raven was dead and Guru got lost... and I was in here by myself all alone. I stayed right where I was ignoring any hostile mobs that got near me as they did the same to me since they couldn't see me. I just sat there for hours scared to even move. That was until the mobs around me started randomly exploding and dying. All I look up to is someone in full black to pick me up like a princess and carry me out to the surface. Raven was indeed dead and Guru has yet to be found... at least on my map locator. I knew he was still alive... he has to be. Guru wouldn't go down willingly without a fight. However, he's not as stupid as Raven was. Raven didn't have to die. He shouldn't have.

Karou looks back up at us. "And that's when I met you guys."

Spark nods finishing off his drink. We were all eating as she told us her story. Faderz chugs what's left of his drink and slams his cup on the table and exhaling deeply, "Well kiddo welcome to the club I guess. If Guru's still alive we'll run into him eventually. If he hasn't figured out the messaging system that is. So I guess big guy's late night grinding payed off, huh buddy?" He playfully slugs my arm as I let a smile come across my face chuckling. I look in the top right of my peripheral vision and check the time. 9:48PM. I lift one of my arms over my head and yawn stretching.

"I dunno 'bout you guys but I'm beat. Call it a night?" Spark nods patting Karou's back.

"Yeah I'm calling it a night myself. I'll see you guys tomorrow." He stands up and waves at us heading out, "Have good one guys." I give him a wave as he leaves.

I open my menu and give Karou a good 40 col, "What's this for?" She accepts it and looks at me.

"That should cover your inn room cost. I'm headed there myself but I can't cover all of us since we get our own room. Unless you wanna share a room with me." I give her a playful wink as she gives unsatisfied look.

"Please tell me that was a joke. We just met casanova. I'll have my own room but thanks for the offer." I tap Faderz's shoulder crossing my arms.

"What's your plans for the night bud? Anything good?" He shakes his head dismissing his menus.

"I'm gonna call it a night too. Let's get going then." We all get up as I head over to the barmaid. I open my menus and pay her. She give me a light smile bowing slightly.

"Thank you and please come again."

I walk over to them and we walk down the roads of the town. We all buy ourselves a room and wave goodnight to each other. Closing the door to my room I let out a long sigh, "Tomorrow is gonna be one hell of a day. Fighting the floor boss." I sit down on the bed and take all my armor off and put everything in my inventory. I'm curious to meet this so-called Guru player. Karou has a liking to him and he sounds like an interesting fellow. I lay down on my bed and sigh slowly drifting asleep.


End file.
